DVD
Hancock's Half Hour
Volume 1

Starring: Tony Hancock
BBC Worldwide
RRP: £15.99
BBCDVD1368
Certificate: PG
Available 13 September 2004


Hancock was UK TV's first major comedy star and the failed social climber from the wrong end of suburbia still has a place in our hearts, despite his increasing vintage. The reason? At its best Hancock's Half Hour is a first rate comedy of manners and now thanks to the BBC we can experience the oldest surviving recordings of the show...

Volume one of Hancock's Half Hour includes the episodes The Alpine Holiday, Air Steward Hancock, The Last of the Many, The Lawyer: The Crown v Sidney James, Competitions: How to Win Money and Influence People, There's an Airfield at the Bottom of My Garden and a Christmas special: Hancock's Forty-Three Minutes: The East Cheam Repertory Company: The Christmas Special.

The first thing to mention is how good the picture quality is. Old, suppressed field film recordings from the 1950s often look tired and scratched and although they'll never compete with modern recordings these episodes hold their own thanks to a thorough clean and polish. The sound is generally pretty clean too although there's a few instances of some unwanted hiss that could have been filtered out at little extra cost which is a shame.

The second thing to mention is that Hancock's Half Hour matured and developed across its run and while many later episodes are near faultless slices of TV, some of the earlier ones don't quite work, perhaps because the central character's balance of pomposity and pathos had not been properly aligned. There's also too much emphasis on narrative and not enough on personality - again something that would be refined by the time the show peaked.

This disc is therefore more of a creaky archive curio than universal entertainment which will clearly limit its appeal. However, for anyone with an interest in 1950s TV or classic comedy this early insight into Hancock's Half Hour is essential.

Anthony Clark

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